Bruce Sacked at last (now official)

[Chris Smith]

Tomorrow night may not be the slam-dunk that some might expect, with the new manager bounce that Blunderland may get. And, our manager seems to struggle to get the home tactics right. I really hope they go out and cane the visitors: it's time we set out a real statement of intent.
Probs won't happen ...

There might be an improvement with the new manager but he will only really have had today to work with them. Put it this way, if you were a Sunderland fan how confident would you be coming to Villa Park?

A straightforward, no fuss routine win would be enough of a statement as far as I am concerened although as my old man is making a rare visit for his 81st birthday I hope that we put on a bit of a show.

[Brend'Watkins]

Tomorrow night may not be the slam-dunk that some might expect, with the new manager bounce that Blunderland may get. And, our manager seems to struggle to get the home tactics right. I really hope they go out and cane the visitors: it's time we set out a real statement of intent.
Probs won't happen ...

There might be an improvement with the new manager but he will only really have had today to work with them. Put it this way, if you were a Sunderland fan how confident would you be coming to Villa Park?

A straightforward, no fuss routine win would be enough of a statement as far as I am concerened although as my old man is making a rare visit for his 81st birthday I hope that we put on a bit of a show.

If they give Hourihane room and he brings his shooting boots with him I think he'll have a birthday treat.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Tomorrow night may not be the slam-dunk that some might expect, with the new manager bounce that Blunderland may get. And, our manager seems to struggle to get the home tactics right. I really hope they go out and cane the visitors: it's time we set out a real statement of intent.
Probs won't happen ...

There might be an improvement with the new manager but he will only really have had today to work with them. Put it this way, if you were a Sunderland fan how confident would you be coming to Villa Park?

A straightforward, no fuss routine win would be enough of a statement as far as I am concerened although as my old man is making a rare visit for his 81st birthday I hope that we put on a bit of a show.

Nice. Let's hope it's a special game for him. As for the new manager bounce, all they can realistically expect is for all their players to put in a big shift but providing we match them, which is probably our strongest characteristic under Bruce, the talent and confidence we have should we too much for them.

[Mister E]

Tomorrow night may not be the slam-dunk that some might expect, with the new manager bounce that Blunderland may get. And, our manager seems to struggle to get the home tactics right. I really hope they go out and cane the visitors: it's time we set out a real statement of intent.
Probs won't happen ...

There might be an improvement with the new manager but he will only really have had today to work with them. Put it this way, if you were a Sunderland fan how confident would you be coming to Villa Park?

A straightforward, no fuss routine win would be enough of a statement as far as I am concerened although as my old man is making a rare visit for his 81st birthday I hope that we put on a bit of a show.

Well, have a great evening Chris. I'll give you a wave ...

[Matt Collins]

I don’t think we’ve had a straightforward league win at villa park this season. I’d definitely take a nice solid 2-0. Hopefully Davis can get a break towards the end if so

[Clampy]

Tomorrow night may not be the slam-dunk that some might expect, with the new manager bounce that Blunderland may get. And, our manager seems to struggle to get the home tactics right. I really hope they go out and cane the visitors: it's time we set out a real statement of intent.
Probs won't happen ...

There might be an improvement with the new manager but he will only really have had today to work with them. Put it this way, if you were a Sunderland fan how confident would you be coming to Villa Park?

A straightforward, no fuss routine win would be enough of a statement as far as I am concerened although as my old man is making a rare visit for his 81st birthday I hope that we put on a bit of a show.

That's lovely to hear. Hope your father has a great night.

[olaftab]

Well if Mr Smith senior has a great night we will all be happy so let's hope for that

[Hookeysmith]

Not seen this mentioned anywhere?

I am in Manchester and everyone is discussing it

https://sports.yahoo.com/beckham-reportedly-wants-steve-bruce-125323364.html

Can we have a whip round for the fare?

[paul_e]

If that were to happen next summer might be the perfect time for it, if we get promoted.

[Drummond]

If that were to happen next summer might be the perfect time for it, if we get promoted.

Even more perfect if we don't! (though I think we will)

[Diablo]

Not seen this mentioned anywhere?

I am in Manchester and everyone is discussing it

https://sports.yahoo.com/beckham-reportedly-wants-steve-bruce-125323364.html

Can we have a whip round for the fare?

I'll chip in just let me order some of this cock grease first off Mr Beckham (the fumes must get you high as f**k if it makes you want to employ SB on your exciting new venture).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5097717/David-Beckham-s-image-used-plug-Japanese-hair-gel.html

[tomd2103]

I don’t think we’ve had a straightforward league win at villa park this season. I’d definitely take a nice solid 2-0. Hopefully Davis can get a break towards the end if so

Not exactly straightforward, but the win against Norwich was pretty convincing.  Apart from that, we have stumbled over the line in a lot of the others.

[stuart445]

I'm no Bruce adherent and tend to think of our successes as more a case of how much quality we have rather than tactical brilliance, but he's clearly doing more right this season than last. If we're within striking distance of automatic promotion after Terry and Kodjia are back you might just have to admit he's doing the job well.

Oh dear another when we win it's not down to Bruce but when we lose its all Bruce's fault.

Sure, if you choose to read it that way.  Or last season wasn't good enough, this season is better but still not quite where we want to be but he'll deserve praise if we kick on from here.

You seem to find this really difficult to understand but where we are now is pretty much the minimum acceptable, that's not changed by one win or defeat.  At this moment he's turned around a bad start and got us keeping pace with the leaders, for which he deserves credit, but untilwe start closing that gap we're still a couple of poor performances from dropping below expectations.

There's plenty of positives, he's getting goals from midfield (which were missing last season), he found a way to come back from behind, which has been our biggest weakness since he arrived and he's stopped a defeat from turning into a bad run (again something he struggled to do last year).  all of those mean that no one is seriously talking about replacing him right now but it doesn't stop people from being concerned that we're still too inconsistent and the Sheff Weds style performances still seem to happen too often, Cardiff, Reading, Boro, Wolves, Brentford and that one means that over a third of the games we've played have been poor.  Yes we've played much better in some of the others (again, there's probably been 5-6 genuine good performances) but we really need to put the truly terrible performances to bed now.

When we came down we was a badly damaged club and it was unlikely that the 6 years of neglect was going to be turned around to get us an instant return to the premier league.

When you throw in starting last season with the wrong manager made promotion last season pretty much impossible regardless of who the manager was.

[Clampy]

I'm no Bruce adherent and tend to think of our successes as more a case of how much quality we have rather than tactical brilliance, but he's clearly doing more right this season than last. If we're within striking distance of automatic promotion after Terry and Kodjia are back you might just have to admit he's doing the job well.

Oh dear another when we win it's not down to Bruce but when we lose its all Bruce's fault.

Sure, if you choose to read it that way.  Or last season wasn't good enough, this season is better but still not quite where we want to be but he'll deserve praise if we kick on from here.

You seem to find this really difficult to understand but where we are now is pretty much the minimum acceptable, that's not changed by one win or defeat.  At this moment he's turned around a bad start and got us keeping pace with the leaders, for which he deserves credit, but untilwe start closing that gap we're still a couple of poor performances from dropping below expectations.

There's plenty of positives, he's getting goals from midfield (which were missing last season), he found a way to come back from behind, which has been our biggest weakness since he arrived and he's stopped a defeat from turning into a bad run (again something he struggled to do last year).  all of those mean that no one is seriously talking about replacing him right now but it doesn't stop people from being concerned that we're still too inconsistent and the Sheff Weds style performances still seem to happen too often, Cardiff, Reading, Boro, Wolves, Brentford and that one means that over a third of the games we've played have been poor.  Yes we've played much better in some of the others (again, there's probably been 5-6 genuine good performances) but we really need to put the truly terrible performances to bed now.

When we came down we was a badly damaged club and it was unlikely that the 6 years of neglect was going to be turned around to get us an instant return to the premier league.

When you throw in starting last season with the wrong manager made promotion last season pretty much impossible regardless of who the manager was.

This. Getting up first time was always going to be tough. When you win 1 game in you first 11, then it gets even tougher.

[paul_e]

I'm no Bruce adherent and tend to think of our successes as more a case of how much quality we have rather than tactical brilliance, but he's clearly doing more right this season than last. If we're within striking distance of automatic promotion after Terry and Kodjia are back you might just have to admit he's doing the job well.

Oh dear another when we win it's not down to Bruce but when we lose its all Bruce's fault.

Sure, if you choose to read it that way.  Or last season wasn't good enough, this season is better but still not quite where we want to be but he'll deserve praise if we kick on from here.

You seem to find this really difficult to understand but where we are now is pretty much the minimum acceptable, that's not changed by one win or defeat.  At this moment he's turned around a bad start and got us keeping pace with the leaders, for which he deserves credit, but untilwe start closing that gap we're still a couple of poor performances from dropping below expectations.

There's plenty of positives, he's getting goals from midfield (which were missing last season), he found a way to come back from behind, which has been our biggest weakness since he arrived and he's stopped a defeat from turning into a bad run (again something he struggled to do last year).  all of those mean that no one is seriously talking about replacing him right now but it doesn't stop people from being concerned that we're still too inconsistent and the Sheff Weds style performances still seem to happen too often, Cardiff, Reading, Boro, Wolves, Brentford and that one means that over a third of the games we've played have been poor.  Yes we've played much better in some of the others (again, there's probably been 5-6 genuine good performances) but we really need to put the truly terrible performances to bed now.

When we came down we was a badly damaged club and it was unlikely that the 6 years of neglect was going to be turned around to get us an instant return to the premier league.

When you throw in starting last season with the wrong manager made promotion last season pretty much impossible regardless of who the manager was.

All of which misses the point that we didn't change from RDM to Bruce to avoid relegation or to secure midtable, we did it because he has promotions under his belt and we really wanted that last season.  However unlikely it might have been that was the plan.  There were mitigating factors but there is no way bottom half was an acceptable placing last season, if he'd gone at the end of the season he really wouldn't have had many excuses.  Right now it's starting to look like sticking with him might turn out to be a good decision but he really hasn't got a lot of wiggle room in that, which is why, as I say, we need to kick on now.  The explanations are all used up now and we need to make a proper push for promotion from here.